


25.8

by extraordinary



Series: Contractual [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Inspired by Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler, M/M, Pre-Relationship, demon!Rin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-28
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-15 13:51:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3449501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extraordinary/pseuds/extraordinary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He knows with absolute certainty now that he's never going to become another Dara Torres, he'll never find himself competing in his fifth and final Olympics at age 41 the way she did, but at least he's got two full years on Ian Thorpe. He no longer has to worry about injuries, a lack of funds, or even his personal safety. His goggles don't fog up, and there's a constant supply of mackerel waiting for him in the fridge. Who <i>wouldn't</i> like the sound of that?</p>
            </blockquote>





	25.8

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a prologue, to test the waters, loosely based on [this edit by kayentaw](http://kayentaw.tumblr.com/post/112171240850/i-made-a-free-and-kuroshitsuji-crossover-rin-as). Everything is set in the usual Free! canon. The only difference is that Rin is a demon. 
> 
> PLEASE NOTE: Considering the dynamics between demon & master, **I feel like I should warn for possible consent issues and other related, problematic themes that might come up in other stories in this 'verse**. It's not quite applicable in this prologue, but there's no way to sugar-coat this: Haruka can, at any time, give Rin an order he must obey. This will automatically mean anything remotely sexual happening between them since the start of the contract, no matter how mutual, falls under "dubious consent" at best. I will make sure to put up a warning at the beginning of each instalment  & do my best to treat the subject carefully, though. Please stay safe, and if there's anything you'd like to know about don't hesitate to ask for clarification! :)
> 
> (I originally uploaded this as a chaptered work, because I completely forgot I could just turn it into a series! *facepalm!* Fixed that, now...)

_**"Never trust a demon. He has a hundred motives for anything he does... Nintety-nine of them, at least, are malevolent."** _

  **―[Neil Gaiman](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1221698.Neil_Gaiman), _[The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes](http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1228437) _**

 

 

Each time he prepares to leap off of the starting block and into the welcoming blue of the chlorinated water below, there are two things that cross Haruka's mind. One of them is the comforting scent of his surroundings, and how it never fails to smell like _home_. It fills his thoughts, calms his rapidly beating heart, and significantly slows his breathing down until the tips of his toes disappear beneath the surface and the rest of his body takes over.

The other is a perpetual reminder — one that, more often than not, manifests in the shape of Rin's voice; and has the unrivalled ability to make the hair on his arms stand on end: _"Y'know, back in 1984 the average age of an Olympic medallist was 21.2. It's been rising slowly ever since, though — I heard it's up to 25.8, now. How does that sound, Haru?"  
_

**_25.8._ **

Not quite twenty-six...

Although, in a moment of apparent weakness, Rin _had_ offered to round it up for Haruka recently. According to him, the upward progression seen in the average elite swimmer's retirement age has been steady over the last couple of Olympic cycles — and Haruka, apparently, had once had a pretty good chance of making his career last well into his early 30s. Of course, true to form, Rin hadn't quite deemed it necessary to share that fact with him until it was far too late for either of them to back out.

Haruka knows very well that it had only ever been a mere _chance_ , however.

Even if there was a way to travel back into time and warn his teenage self about Rin's true nature and his hidden intentions, Haruka is fairly certain the outcome would still have been the same. He'd never liked those odds to begin with. No, there's no way he'd have been willing to risk it. Not when presented with an actual choice in the matter. Haruka wasn't going to end up like Yamazaki — he'd rather die than look at the water with such resignation and resentment in his eyes.

That's why he'd chosen to take that 25.8 instead. He had allowed Rin to carve it into stone — along with the pale, previously unblemished skin of his inner thigh — and promised himself he would never look back. It couldn't have had anything to do with his desire to soften the helpless fear and self-hatred lurking underneath the surface of Rin's bravado; because if it _had_ , then it would've been extremely foolish of him to believe accepting the offer would ever be able to accomplish that.

It came as no surprise, then, that Haruka's actions only served to amplify Rin's pain over the years.

There is simply no other way it could have turned out, all things considered. There never was — that's just how these kind of things tend to go between the two of them. It can't be helped.

Even so, nearly a decade after meeting Rin for the very first time, Haruka still can't quite bring himself to regret the contract they'd formed — smack in the middle of his parents' genkan, voices hushed and eyes wide, on the dawn of Rin's 18th birthday. Leaving things up to chance had never even been an option, had it? Such a thing sounds far too troublesome, anyway.

He knows with absolute certainty now that he's never going to become another Dara Torres, he'll never find himself competing in his fifth and final Olympics at age 41 the way she did, but at least he's got two full years on Ian Thorpe. He no longer has to worry about injuries, a lack of funds, or even his personal safety. His goggles don't fog up, and there's a constant supply of mackerel waiting for him in the fridge. Who _wouldn't_ like the sound of that?

As of 06:14AM this morning, Haruka's got 3.8 years left.

That's more than time enough for the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and he intends to make it count. All he owes Rin in return for an elite swimmer's average — _professional_ — life span is his soul.

It wasn't a tough decision to make. Perhaps he can even bargain with Rin for a little extra time at some point — not _much_ , but just enough for them to make it to the 2020 edition in their home country together. Who knows what the future has in store for the two of them, right?

Haruka takes a deep, steadying breath to pull himself back into the moment. He straightens out his spine, pushes his chest forward, and forces himself to focus on the feeling of his bare feet on the non-slip finish underneath him in order to prepare for his dive. He leans back slightly to create the necessary tension in his arms, then faces the pool head-on.

Deliberately slowly, he bends his right knee and slides his foot backwards all the way to the very edge of the starting block. When he jumps, he pushes himself off of the staring block with both feet _and_ hands — and by the time he has fully stretched his arms out in front of him, all thoughts of the contract have been effectively banished to the back of his mind.

The water wraps him in its soothingly cool embrace and blocks out all of the noise above the surface. It's blissfully quiet here.

_This is it._

This is what Nanase Haruka would — and ultimately _will —_ die for.

And even though things aren't quite as simple as they may appear to be on the surface, Haruka will take the painful truth behind his impulsive decision to his grave — because he knows without a doubt that Rin would never be able to live with himself, if Haruka hadn't taken great pains to _make_ it so.


End file.
